Aftermath
by dragonflydreams
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke has finally killed his brother, but when he learns the truth, he regrets. Hes wasted his entire life... One of Konoha's biggest secret is revealed. Kakashi confronts Sasuke about it. Not Yaoi, no romance.  Read and review, flames accepted


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. (Otherwise Itachi would be a good guy)

I know that this situation would never be possible, but I don't care. I love Itachi too much.

* * *

Kakashi sprinted deep into the forest where he was sure his subordinate would be. After twelve years it had finally come to this. Kakashi knew that he shouldn't have expected any other outcome. After all, if it had been himself, he was sure that he would have been devastated too. Trees passed at blazing speed until he reached a clearing in the woods. Here he stopped, searching around the area. It was far too silent. 

"Why sensei?" A voice of suppressed pain. "Why did they do it? Why didn't you ever tell me?" The young man sat on the branch of a high tree, one knee up, his other leg dangling. Next to him leaning on the trunk was a long wooden coffin. Carved on the front was the Uchiha fan. Sasuke's eyes were focused in the distance, towards the setting sun. They had a hint of sadness and anger in them. But they were mostly filled with emptiness. A dead man's eyes.

"How did you find out?"

"I looked into his eyes…with my Sharingan…right before he…"

Kakashi looked down, ashamed. "I'm sorry Sasuke. But it was for our village. We had to protect it. It was the ultimate sacrifice."

"What do you know of sacrifice? You lost nothing, I lost everything!" The last Uchiha suddenly became enraged. "You and your fucking village! I trusted you. You taught me all these years! You were like a fucking father to me!"

The silver-haired jounin looked up. "The Hokage ordered me not to tell. None of it was up to me. You were never supposed to find out."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?!...Oh god…I killed him with my own hands…"

_**Flash** **Back Three days ago**_

* * *

_He was here at last. More than a decade had passed since his clan's slaughter. The days he spent going home to his empty manor. The days he spent shunning his friends and pushing them away. The days he spent pushing himself in the freezing rain. Even the days he trained under the harsh tutelage of Orochimaru. All for this moment, when he could finally exact his revenge. Team seven and eight had arrived at the Akatsuki headquarters under the Fifth's orders. With them were Kakashi and Neji. Shikamaru was leading them all. By now, only four Akatsuki members remained; Tobi, Zetsu, Kisame, and of course, Itachi. Of the leaf ninja, only Shikamaru and Sasuke had been able to kill an Akatsuki on his own. As a result, each of them was assigned their own member to kill. Sasuke had of course chosen Itachi. Both Naruto and Sakura insisted on helping him, but Shikamaru decided against it. In the end, Naruto and Sakura were assigned Kisame. Kakashi and Neji were in charge of fighting Tobi, while Shikamaru would fight Zetsu. Team eight were there to defeat everyone else; lesser ninja of the Akatsuki, as well as hired mercenaries. Shino would cover the distance, Kiba midrange, and Hinata close range. Hinata would also act as the medic if it was necessary. When they were done, they would hurry and assist the others._

_Once they arrived at the cavern, they were attacked by Akatsuki underlings, just as Shikamaru expected. Sasuke immediately killed anyone stupid enough to get in his way, and sped off further._

_"Oy! Wait Sasuke-teme!"_

_The avenger ignored the cries of his best friend, and dashed through corridors. He didn't know how he knew where to go, but he could practically feel Itachi's presence…and he knew that his brother was waiting for him. Before he knew it, Sasuke had entered an open area of the hideout. And from the center of the room, cold, calculating Sharingan stared back at him. Instead of his usual Akatsuki clothes, Itachi had worn a black outfit with gray battle armor over it and a sheathed katana in the back; his old Konoha uniform. It was the same one he had when he massacred the clan; old blood stains still remained. There were no words then…each charged at each other with deliberate speed, kunai in hand. With a flick of a wrist, the kunai in Itachi's hand flew towards Sasuke, who deflected it with ease. Itachi quickly unsheathed his katana aiming a horizontal slash at Sasuke's head, only to hit air, as his younger brother jumped above him. Sasuke quickly attached a chakra string to the end of his kunai and threw the weapon at Itachi. As Itachi knocked it to the side with his sword, Sasuke redirected it to pin his left sleeve to the wall. No escape. As Sasuke landed, he performed the appropriate hand seals and blew a giant fireball at Itachi, confident that he was toast. However, before he turned away from the fire, he felt the chakra string he was controlling loosen, and looked up to see Itachi charging straight at him, his right hand spinning his katana at extreme speed to act as both a fan and a shield. On top of that, the blade was doused in Itachi's own special black fire. Sasuke immediately jumped back, but was not fast enough to dodge. The blade stopped spinning and had slashed him diagonally, from Sasuke's right abs, to the left side of his chest. Though the cut was not deep enough to hit any of his organs, the fire burned through his shinobi vest, and practically melted off his own flesh. It was still burning his body. He could not even bleed externally; the heat had resealed the gash just as quickly as it created it. Without hesitating, Sasuke ignored the intense pain and took out his own katana, charging his chidori through it. There was no way he would get hit by that again. He decided then, that the best way to finish this was with one, final fully charged attack. Miss or hit, one of the two would die. And so, Sasuke charged full speed towards Itachi with his chidori blade, expecting him to try to dodge or counter. Instead, he had chosen to charge back, with his own inferno sword. In an instant, black flames met white lightning, and a cataclysmic sound could be heard throughout the cavern, threatening to cause a cave-in. Then, there was silence. To be honest, Sasuke expected to find himself cut in half. But he opened his eyes and saw his sword stabbed through his brother's heart. He slowly looked up towards the dying man's face, until he noticed a smile…not a smirk, but a smile. This wasn't right. Why was Itachi smiling? Of all these years, he had never once shown emotion. If anything, he wanted to see Itachi's face showing surprise, fear, or even regret. But he was actually happy. Why?! Finally Sasuke looked up to his brother's eyes. His Sharingan was still on, but his eyes were wet…almost tear like. And then, in that one moment in his life, Itachi's eyes had failed him as a shinobi, and Sasuke could see the truth of all these years._

_"I'm sorry foolish brother." Itachi smiled sadly "But I had to do it." For Konoha. With a final sigh, the Uchiha genius closed his eyes and submitted to eternal slumber._

_No. No. It was all wrong. It had to be a trick. It made no fucking sense! Sasuke took his blade out of the now fresh corpse. The body fell to the ground, as Sasuke fell to his knees. My whole life has been a lie…_

_Naruto sat on the ground recuperating from the previous battle. He turned to look at the damned dead fish that lay on the ground before him. Both him and the pink haired kounichi suffered several injuries, none life threatening thankfully. Stupid Prick. It took him and Sakura forever to finally kill the bastard since he had so much chakra. More chakra than even Kyuubi had. In fact, they were the last ones to complete their objectives. He glanced around him. Kakashi and Neji suffered the least injuries, which was not surprising. Shikamaru, Shino and Kiba were currently scouting the area for more people, just in case, and Hinata was treating both him and Sakura. Everyone was accounted for. Well, almost everyone he thought to himself. The fox boy started to worry about his dark haired comrade. He was about to get up and go look for him, when the prodigy came back, with a dead Itachi in his arms. No one dared to speak. One look at his eyes, and Naruto saw regret in them. He also saw the mild hint of shame in Kakashi's eyes, though he didn't understand why. And he was smart enough not to ask. That day, no one questioned why Sasuke had bothered to bring Itachi's corpse back to Konoha, or why he had mysteriously disappeared, with the body, the moment they arrived back._

* * *

**_End Flashback_**

Kakashi was speechless. He didn't really know what to say to his ex-student.

"I want to know something." Sasuke finally spoke, calm this time "Did my father know? Did he consent to this too?"

Once again, Kakashi hung his head down in shame. "No" He breathed out. "Only Itachi knew."

An uncomfortable silence broke out. The silver haired jounin started shifting uneasily.

"Look, it had to be done! Itachi knew it, the Hokage knew it, and I knew it!" Kakashi didn't know why he was using such a harsh voice suddenly. "We needed an inside man! We didn't even plan for your clan to be massacred to begin with! But the Akatsuki needed to trust him. It was them who ordered Itachi to do it."

"The third Hokage approved it without hesitation though, didn't he?" Sasuke's voice was almost a whisper. "I mean, sacrifice a clan for the well being of an entire village."

"It was for shinobi villages everywhere. It was not only the Hokage. It was the Raikage, Kazekage…all five leaders. And the elders. Ultimately, we had to make the sacrifice, since our village was the most powerful."

"…Was I supposed to be killed too? Was he supposed to kill me along with my parents?"

Kakashi nodded "Yes. Itachi couldn't do it though. He risked the entire mission by not killing you. But he didn't want the Uchiha clan to vanish forever. The elders promised that after the Akatsuki were killed, he could live the rest of his life in peace, and start a new legacy. But he saw through the elder's lies. He knew he would be disposed of the moment he finished the job. The elders would have been afraid of him revealing the truth to the village. So Itachi spared you, and rested all his hope on the rebirth of the clan with you."

Sasuke sat there, continuing to look at the horizon. By now, the sun was completely set, and the sky was filled with a dark indigo. The air had gotten a lot colder. For the last three days, Sasuke had wandered around the forest. He hadn't gotten a second of sleep. He spent the first day making a coffin. Sasuke found the most beautiful tree he could, and immediately cut it down. It took him the first half of the day to cut an appropriately shaped coffin. He spent the rest of the time finding the prettiest leaves and lining the inside of the coffin with them. Afterwards, he placed the body inside the coffin, along with his katana, before closing it, and carefully carving the Uchiha symbol on the cover.

Sasuke spent the following day going over his entire life. He started remembering all the good times he actually did have with Itachi. There was the one time that his brother took him to the beach. Normally, Itachi wouldn't have bothered to do so, but Sasuke had recently been accepted into the ninja academy, and like always, father had forgotten. Instead, it had been Itachi who took him out to celebrate, and so the two found themselves at Konoha shore. Another time, Itachi had been teasing him about his first (and only) crush. It had been when the Uchiha family was visiting the Hyuuga compound, and Itachi had found him staring at a cute blue-haired girl hiding behind her father. She hadn't noticed, and Itachi saw a faint blush on Sasuke's face, before he openly broadcast Sasuke's behavior to everyone else.

Earlier today, the young Uchiha had been planning what to do. No doubt, someone would be looking for him by now. Most likely Naruto or Sakura, if not both. He wondered what he would tell them. The truth that he had just discovered himself? Probably not. And what would he do with his dead brother? He somehow didn't believe that he would get the proper, heroic burial he deserved. Uchiha Sasuke's mind immediately felt hatred burn inside him. It was all of Konoha's fault. No, that wasn't right. There was no way that the shinobi or the villagers knew the situation. But Sasuke was sure the Third had known. And most of the village elders. But what about the Fifth? And Kakashi? His question was immediately answered when he saw his ex-sensei run into the clearing beneath him…

* * *

"Who else knows? Obviously the fifth sent you, so she has to know. You, the elders, the third, who else?" 

Silence…then "No one"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Then that means…you were sent to kill me. Right?"

Kakashi stared straight into those obsidian eyes. "Yes. Tsunade-sama was against it, and the elders' verruled her. But that's not what I'm going to do."

"Then why are you here?"

"…I made a promise to Itachi before he had left. No matter what it took, I would make sure that you lived. Even if I have to sacrifice my own life…"

"What are you saying?"

"Sasuke. You have to kill me. Chidori, right through my heart."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "What the hell are you trying to pull?!"

"Kill me, and leave. Find another place to go. Give up your life as a shinobi, and start a family. It's the only way for you to escape, and have a new life."

Sasuke couldn't believe this. "What?! No! I refuse to do this!"

Kakashi suddenly pulled out a kunai. "Do it. Or I have to kill you. It's your life or mine." Kakashi took off his eye patch and threw it to the ground.

Sasuke jumped down as the kunai was flung at him. He looked up and saw his mentor's eyes. He was dead serious. What the fuck was he supposed to do? Without hesitation, Kakashi started to charge at him. He had no other choice.

"CHIDORI!!!"

* * *

Kakashi awoke to the sound of a steady beeping next to him. He opened his eyes, to a white ceiling. He was in Konoha Hospital. Kakashi sat up and looked around. Along the wall sat Naruto and Sakura, staring back at them. 

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" The two got up and Sakura rushed over to hug their teacher.

"Oof! Calm down Sakura!"

"We were worried sick about you! We found you in the forest bleeding. If we were there ten minutes later, you would have bled to death." Sakura was near tears.

"Wait…how did you two find me?"

Naruto looked up with saddened eyes. "Sasuke sent us a message that said where you were. He did this to you didn't he? I recognize the wound."

Kakashi suddenly looked down. There were bandages around his stomach…which meant that Sasuke hadn't aimed to kill. "It's not what you think, Naruto"

"Then what is it? We haven't seen him for the last week."

Kakashi frowned. So he had been out cold for four days?

"Itachi's already dead! Why did he run away again?!"

"Naruto…"

"Naruto that's enough" Team seven (minus Sasuke) glanced up at the figure who just entered. "Naruto, Sakura, please leave the room. I have to talk to Kakashi alone."

"But…!"

Tsunade glared at the blonde, and ended any other objection. After making sure the two left, and were not eavesdropping, the Hokage spoke again. "So what happened?"

Kakashi looked up. "What do you think?"

Tsunade smirked. "So what are you going to report to the elders?"

"The truth. That Sasuke knocked me out cold, and got away."

"Right." The Fifth turned to leave, before facing Kakashi once more. "The elders will probably tell me to assign top priority missions in finding him. What do you think I should do?"

Kakashi looked out the window. "If Sasuke doesn't want to be found, he won't be found. Just humor the elders for now."

"Heh. I guess you're right. Those damn old cronies will be the death of me. Get better Kakashi." And with that, she left.

From this floor, Kakashi could see the whole forest outside. His eyes focused on an eagle flying in the distance. It occurred to him that Sasuke was finally free. He could go wherever he wanted, and do whatever he felt like. He imagined Sasuke living as a farmer in a small village somewhere off the map. Kakashi wondered if he would ever return to Konoha, maybe after the Elders all die of heart attacks. Or maybe Naruto would be Hokage by then. Either way, he'd love to see how his beloved student would turn out.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed the story! Reviewers, be as honest as you want to be, whether you like this story or not. Flames greatly appreciated. 

For those who don't understand, basically, Itachi's mission was to infiltrate the ranks of the Akatsuki. He would provide information to Kakashi (though this is not mentioned above) And Konoha would work to eliminate the Akatsuki. Although Itachi never personally kills another Akatsuki member, the information he provides allows Konoha to do so. However, as a test of his loyalty, the akatsuki leader ordered Itachi to murder his entire clan. With the final consent from the Third Hokage (under the pressure of both the elders and the other villages), Itachi murders his entire clan, who have no knowledge of this mission. As a result, the Uchiha clan (minus Sasuke) was unwillingly sacrificed for the sake of the five shinobi villages. Kakashi had knowledge of this since the beginning, but had sworn not to reveal this to anyone.

When Sasuke kills his brother, he looks Itachi in the eye, where Itachi uses his Sharingan one last time. It is here in the alternate sharingan world that Itachi tells Sasuke the truth.


End file.
